Optogan opens largest LED production plant in Eastern Europe

Optogan has found a prosperous environment in Russia for its ambitious expansion plans in LED lighting.

The Optogan Group of Companies, a Russia-based LED manufacturer, has opened a new manufacturing plant in St. Petersburg, Russia, which has benefited from an overall investment of 3.35 billion rubles EUR 80 million

The facility, which is the largest LED component and module factory in the Eastern Europe and CIS region, was opened by Sergey Ivanov, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation.

Optogan factory in St. Petersburg

The factory will employ up to 800 people and covers 15,000 sq.m of floor space, of which 5000 sq.m is taken up by a clean-room environment. The first production line has an annual production capacity of 360 million LEDs, and further capacity extensions are scheduled.

This is the latest and largest example of investment and state support for the LED market in Russia. Optogan says that the opening of this new high-tech factory in Russia marks another step forward in the modernization and globalization of the Russian economy.

The Optogan Group manufactures LED chips, packaged emitters, and LED lamps and luminaires. It was founded in 2004 by three Russian scientists in Helsinki, Finland. Since 2005 Optogan GmbH has been developing chip technologies in Dortmund, Germany and chip production in Landshut, Germany. In late 2008, Optogan was acquired by Onexim Group, a private investment fund which is Optogan's major shareholder. Other shareholders are Rusnano, a state investment fund, and the regional Republican Investment Company RIC

Opening ceremony

As well as Deputy Prime Minister Ivanov, the ceremony was attended by Valentina Matvienko, Governor of St. Petersburg; Yegor Borisov, President of Russia's Sakha Republic Yakutiya Anatoliy Chubais, General Director of Rusnanotech; Mikhail Prokhorov, President, Onexim Group and a large audience of well-known representatives from the world of politics, research and industry.

The three founders of Optogan Maxim Odnoblyudov, Vladislav Bougrov and Alexey Kovsh introduced the production facilities and demonstrated Optogan's highly-efficient LED lamps and explained about energy savings and the avoidance of hazardous substances.

Maxim Odnoblyudov, President of Optogan Group, noted that the launch of the factory is a major step in the company's development. Vladislav Bougrov, General Director of the newly opened factory, said that only the first production line had actually been opened today with a production volume of 30 million LEDs a month. At the end of next year, we will grow the production volume due to the high demand for our products, he added.

LED assembly lines

LEDs produced in St. Petersburg will be sold in Russia and abroad, added Alexey Kovsh, Executive Vice President of Optogan. We've already signed our first major contracts. Also, part of the LED shipments will be sent to our partner companies all over Russia to produce luminaries.

Optogan has established a unique business model to supply core LED technology for luminaires and support to an extensive network of partners within Russia. In future, the luminaire business partner approach will be extended to global level.

Support and investment

Against the trend to establish new LED production facilities solely in the Far East, Optogan has found a suitable legislative and infrastructural environment to establish high-tech manufacturing in Russia to enabling high-volume LED output at competitive costs.

Rusnano, the state fund providing investment for technology projects in the Russian Federation, has provided support for the company and is one of the major shareholders. The key goal of Rusnano is to develop modern production facilities based on leading international scientific knowledge, ensuring they can compete globally, said General Director of Rusnano, Anatoly Chubais.

The opening of Optogan's factory is one of the major synergies of science and business, continued Chubais. Technology based on the work of Nobel prize winner Zhores Alferov has been transformed into mass production, making this a first step in the development of a new energy efficient economy and development of the lighting industry in Russia.

Mikhail Prokorov, President of the main shareholder Onexim Group, said: Onexim's strategy is to invest in these types of innovative companies, which can produce quality products and win a major market share in Russia, as well as [having] the potential to grow globally. We are sure that, thanks to this type of production, our country has all the opportunities to develop on the global markets.